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Chicago marks Duncan's return to Broadway for the first time in—can it be?—15 years

CAROL ROSEGG
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An actress prepares: Duncan backstage before performance of Chicago

"TV Land beckoned, and it was hard to walk away from the money," she says.  "We stayed in Los Angeles for six years, and one day I woke up and said to Don, 'I don't want to live here. I don't want to work here. Let's go back to New York.' So we did, and I'd never move to Los Angeles again.  It's not for me."
Duncan's absence from Broadway does not mean she has been absent from the stage. In recent years the three-time Tony Award nominee (for Canterbury Tales, The Boy Friend and Peter Pan) co-starred with Michael Nouri in a Long Beach (California) production of South Pacific and appeared that she would be seen on Broadway with Tommy Tune in a stage version of Easter Parade, inspired by the MGM musical.  Duncan and Tune had participated in well-received workshops of the show in Australia and New York.  But word is that Irving Berlin's daughters were not happy with the book and wanted Peter Stone to take over from Phil Osterman. "I adored Easter Parade," says Duncan.  "I loved the character, and Phil Osterman. "I adored Easter Parade, inspired by the MGM musical.  Duncan and Tuen had participated in well-received workshops of the show in Australia and New York.  But word is that Irving Berlin's daughters were not happy with the book and wanted Peter Stone to take over from Phil Osterman.  "I loved the character, and Phil Osterman wrote some of the best musical comedy scenes I've ever been given to do. But at this point, I have no idea whether the show will ever happen."
Rather than sit around idly waiting for the right Broadway offer to come along, Duncan created work for herself after she and her family moved back to New York. with the help of their friend Guy Stroman (Forever Plaid), Duncan and Correia--the talented song-and-dance man whose primary occupation these days is selling real estate--put together a concert that they perform with symphony orchestras throughout the country. "It's an evening of Broadway musical material, and we have a ball," she says. "We've been going out on the road every now and then for the past few years, and the show is highly successful. Besides being a terrific way to allow you to say no to other stuff, because you can earn a living doing this, it's been educational to be in front of audiences of all different types, in towns big and small." 
Duncan also wrote a play, which was produced at a theatre in Dallas and at the Berkshire Theatre Festival. "It was a coming-of-age late, menopausal play," she says. "It was about personas. I played three different characters: a Euro-trash diva, a turn-of-the century Follies girl and a gay song-and-dance man. A lot of it was good and very successful, and some of it needed rewriting, which I haven't done. I didn't want to bang people over the head, but I think I erred in being too subtle. I did a question-and-answer session after the show, and it was very interesting. The people that were clued into it and liked it and stayed were stimulated by the show. But some older people in the Berkshires walked out. They said that the gay man really offended them, and they didn't like my using language that they hadn't heard me use before. It bothered them. They'd like to see me in Barefoot in the Park--never mind that I'm way too old."
At a very young-looking 53, she's a perfect age for Roxie. "I think that when I say, 'It's gone, it's all gone,' it's much more resonant than when some cutie in her twenties or thirties says it," says Duncan. "Someone that age won't be down and out very long. But when somebody my age realizes their whole life was in the toilet, and they can rise from that and think, 'I'm gonna bet on myself again, I'm gonna get up from here and do something else,' it's more touching."
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